UAB will be the No. 7 seed in Conference USA Tournament and open with SMU

UAB Coach Jerod Haase talks to UAB's Quincy Taylor during the second half of a NCAA college basketball game against Central Florida at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala., Wednesday, March. 6, 2013. UCF won 74-70. (Mark Almond/malmond@al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - UAB head coach Jerod Haase said that he was taking as many suits "as it takes to win the darn thing" to the Conference USA Tournament.

Well, he'll have to take four. That's how many games No. 7 seed UAB will need to win, in that number of days, to win the Conference USA Tournament in Tulsa. It starts with Wednesday's 3:30 p.m. game against tenth-seeded SMU, which UAB beat 74-69 at home on March 2.

"We're going to go in extremely hungry," Haase said on the postgame radio show earlier Saturday. "I do believe our guys are still united. My goal is to take the number of suits it takes to win the darn thing. That's going to be their attitude as well. We're not looking to buy plane tickets early."

UAB has wins over higher-seeded teams Tulsa and UTEP, though UAB's conference schedule was tougher with multiple games against Memphis, Southern Miss and UCF (six of UAB's nine losses). UAB doesn't have a deep bench, but hasn't been riddled by any unexpected injuries this year and Haase doesn't feel any sense of burnout.

"They believe they can get it done and they're excited about being there and about trying to go to the next level," Haase said on the postgame radio interview. "At this time of the year, there are teams that will get burned out, worn down or injured or things like that.

"The main thing is, the guys are excited about playing basketball. They're excited about representing UAB. Once you get into a tournament, and you start playing well, that's where your momentum can start skyrocketing and good things can happen. If they're going to let us play, we're going to go out there and try to do our best."